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Sunday, November 6, 2016

A young mom was talking to her single brother who had just sailed around the world on a sailboat by himself. She told him how brave she thought he was but he said, "Yeah, that's what everyone tells me, but it's YOU that's brave. It doesn't take bravery to sail around the world, just organization and a boat, You are the brave one. You work through problems in your marriage and don't give up and walk away. You teach your children continuously even when you don't think they're paying any attention to you. What you are doing takes bravery!"

Well, yeah, that describes marriage, parenthood and life in general! I immediately think of potty training with the adjectives "courageous behavior, nerve and fearlessness."

You will need lots of brave moments during parenthood. Here are some situations that come readily to mind:
* Teaching your 15 year old how to drive takes intrepidity and nerve.
* Sending your first child off to kindergarten requires courage and valor.
* Changing your baby's poopy diaper that he has taken off and finger painted his crib with, needs daring and grit, not to mention stoutheartedness
* Inviting 10 giggly girls to your house for your daughter's birthday party will take fearlessness and dauntlessness.
* Buying two dozen cookies for your child's Halloween party at school, then going back to the store to buy a poster board for your jr high school daughter's science project due tomorrow plus taking in dinner to a neighbor with a new baby requires pluck, spine and dauntlessness.

The sentence that the dictionary supplied "the bravery witnessed here today will never be forgotten" could be paired with so many scenarios.

Mom, age 34, just finished mopping the floor, only to have muddy footprints tracked across it by her 3 and 5 year old sons who have been outside playing in the mud from the recent rain storm. Mom bit her tongue and refrained from screaming, yelling and throwing things.The bravery witnessed here today will never be forgotten.
or
Dad, age 40, walks in the door from a tiring day at work to find two sick children who have both just upchucked all over the new couch and carpet. Upon looking for his wife, he finds her sick in bed doing the same thing. Dad cleans up the messes, opens a can of chicken noodle soup for dinner, washes the dishes and tells his wife he will take off work tomorrow. The bravery witnessed here today will never be forgotten.
It takes courageous behavior--bravery--to be a parent who is on call 24/7, rain or shine, day or night, feeling healthy or not. It takes bravery to even bring children into this world with all its skewed sense of right and wrong and what is important in life. It takes bravery plus faith and hope to go through each day with all its myriad challenges and expectations. It takes bravery to be a stay at home mom, fighting boredom, repetitiveness and un-appreciation from your family. And it takes bravery to leave your children every day to go to work because it's what you have to do.

But you know what? The bravery witnessed every day by what you do will never be forgotten. Not by God who loves you, or eventually by your children and husband nor even by you, now that you know how BRAVE you are.

So stand a little taller.
Smile a little longer.
And get out there again and do it. Because:

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About Me

I'm a widow, mother of 7, grandmother of 20 (10 grandsons and 10 granddaughters!) and recently retired school music teacher. I'm a piano teacher, banjo student, and advocate for families. I want to share music with as many families as I can to help them enrich and fortify their homes.